Commentary by Kevin P. Keefe
Altoona’s 4-6-2 isn’t just another restoration project
There are so many mainline steam restorations going on now, the mind reels. Where to begin? Are you thrilled by the prospect of seeing Santa Fe 4-8-4 2926 rolling again? How about Nashville, Chattanooga & St. Louis 4-8-4 576? Or Chesapeake & Ohio 2-8-4 2716? We might even see two Reading 4-8-4s before long. And kudos to the Western Maryland Scenic for hitting the finish line a few months ago with C&O 2-6-6-2 1309.
What really got me excited recently is the news from the Railroaders Memorial Museum in Altoona, Pa.: Pennsylvania Railroad K4s 1361 is poised to escape purgatory. The museum’s chairman, former Norfolk Southern and Amtrak CEO Wick Moorman, is heading up a $2.6 million campaign to get the 1361 back in service. Now we’re talking!
I didn’t come along soon enough, and wasn’t in the right place, to see a K4 in regular service. But I fell under its spell in 1965 when an aunt and uncle in Philadelphia bought me a set of art prints the PRR was selling, reproductions of paintings by the great Grif Teller.
Most of Teller’s work for the calendar series was blatantly commercial — idealized scenes with multiple trains, unapologetically selling PRR mythology. But one stood out. It was, of course, Teller’s masterpiece, On Time, showing K4 5411 hustling a passenger train through a fearsome snowstorm. Here, Teller avoided the publicity cliches and portrayed a machine working its guts out under the toughest conditions. This was fine art, not commercial art.
It was also a testimonial for a great class of 425 locomotives, most of them built in PRR’s Altoona shops. The K4 became a lasting symbol of the railroad, from its earliest assignments on PRR’s heavyweight limiteds of the late 1910s to its commuter runs on the New York & Long Branch four decades later. As one of only two survivors (No. 3750 resides at the Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania in Strasburg), the 1361 was destined to symbolize the PRR legend.
The on-again, off-again life of 1361 since its original 1987 restoration has been a frequent subject of conversation in preservation circles, a checkered story characterized by fresh starts and inevitable disappointments. Looking back over those 34 years, it’s hard to argue that what’s going on now in Altoona is anything less than a miracle.
One of the people charged with making the miracle happen will be Davidson Ward, president of FMW Solutions LLC, the engineering firm that will oversee the restoration. Ward is getting to be an old hand at this sort of thing, with several locomotive projects under his team’s belt. But the 1361 will be special. Old school as it might be (PRR built the engine in 1918), the K4 has significance way beyond its simple, pre-Super Power wheel arrangement. Like the DC-3 in another arena, the K4 was an engineering marvel.
“The K4 was the first scientifically designed locomotive, wherein the railroad undertook a progressive series of tests at Altoona on predecessor models, tweaking various components to improve the design,” explains Ward. “The concept of commonality in components between the K4s and L1s [2-8-2] locomotives is something more similar to modern railroading than the preceding era. Between the K4s and L1s classes, the PRR at one time had nearly 1,000 locomotives with essentially the same boiler and many shared parts.”
Ward would get complete agreement from the late Bill Withuhn, longtime
The K4 became a lasting symbol of the PRR; the 1361 is one of only two survivors.
Smithsonian curator and author of American Steam Locomotives: Design and Development, 1880-1960. In his book, Withuhn wrote that the K4 was an essential step in the march toward the ultimate machines of the 1930s and ’40s.
“The legacy of the K4s was pervasive,” Withuhn explained. “The standardized locomotives developed by U.S. engineers in 1918 for the United States Railroad Administration in several classes . . . were influenced by the K4’s proportions. Every class of heavy passenger engine developed later in the U.S. was affected.”
Ward and his team have already determined that the 1361 is eminently restorable, provided the funds get raised. As with all engines, it starts with the boiler.
“During our engineering study of 1361, we used the very latest in non-destructive testing technology to verify the makeup of steel alloys used to repair the boiler in past efforts,” Ward explains. “This included employing laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy to verify the type and suitability of steel alloys used by previous contractors to repair the boiler. This analysis revealed a few dozen rivets that had already been installed but which have a carbon content too high for boiler usage — these will be replaced.”
Ward said the team is also using what’s called “finite element analysis” to redesign perhaps the most distinctive thing on the engine, its Belpaire firebox. Ward says the updates will not impact the appearance of the engine — the squared-off Belpaire firebox is as emblematic of the Pennsy as its keystone — but will enable it to meet today’s FRA safety standards.
I can’t help but cheer on the museum and its fund-raising campaign, led by Moorman and oriented around museum memberships. I’ve already joined, an impulse made up of equal parts admiration and obligation. I feel the latter keenly, having ridden the 1361’s cab on July 26, 1987, on a return trip from Bellefonte, Pa., to Altoona that could only be described as a dream. Bill Withuhn himself was at the throttle, alternately coaxing and spanking the big Pacific through its paces.
What I remember most about that ride was the sound of the 1361’s boiler, a deep, palpable rumble coming from deep within its courses. Bill remarked on it too, averring that the old engine sounded more authoritative than even he expected. Let’s hope the Railroaders Memorial Museum makes its goal. I’d love to hear that sound again.
KEVIN P. KEEFE joined the Trains staff in 1987, became editor in 1992, and retired in 2016 as Kalmbach Publishing Co.’s vice president, editorial. His blog “Mileposts” is at Trains.com/ctr.